Unpaid Campaign Bills Hang Over Hart

WASHINGTON — Angry creditors and leftover debts from his unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination last year are plaguing Colorado Sen. Gary Hart.

Businessmen say they are angry that they haven`t been paid, and several strongly criticized the campaign`s handling of their debts.

``I`m pretty disgusted with the whole thing,`` said Beverly Rowe, president of Arlington Printers and Stationers of Arlington, Va. Rowe said that when she called the campaign to get payment on a $1,000 printing debt, she was told the debt could be cleared up if she settled for less than half that amount.

Problems like this are common for also-ran presidential contenders, but Hart`s problem is more serious.

He is seen as a contender for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. That campaign would be more difficult with bitter creditors still complaining about unpaid 1984 bills.

According to the most recent report filed with the Federal Elections Commission by Hart`s fundraising committee, Americans With Hart Inc., the campaign has a debt of $3.8 million.

Bank loans account for $800,000 of the debt, and the rest is mainly salary owed to campaign employees, legal and consulting fees and bills for goods and services.

Hart spokeswoman Beth Smith said the total owed has been reduced to $3.6 million since the report was filed March 25. Most of that has gone to pay off bank loans, which were secured by artwork and other property belonging to Hart and his supporters.

``It is very difficult and very disappointing for us to see so many people who are unable to get full payment on their bills after all this time, but we are doing everything we can to treat people fairly and equitably,``

Smith said.

``We simply do not have the money to pay everybody yet,`` she said.

``We have to do it one step at a time.``

Hart was unavailable for comment on the creditors` complaints.

A Hart spokesman said the campaign expects to pay off its debt by the end of the year.

In addition to fundraising, two methods being used to reduce the debt are settlement offers to creditors who agree to substantially reduce their charges and a review of claims to see whether the campaign worker who placed the order had authority to do so.

In cases where there was no authority for the charges, creditors are being informed the campaign will not pick up the debt, Dixon said.

And most creditors probably won`t receive a settlement offer until the end of June, a Hart spokesman said.

Campaign spokesmen for former Vice President Walter Mondale and Sen. John Glenn said both practices are common in losing campaigns where a large debt remains.

``There is nothing you are talking about that, if we were short of money, we wouldn`t be considering,`` said Mike Berman, Mondale`s treasurer.

``It is not uncommon to only pay the bills that were properly authorized.``

A Hart spokesman said some businesses that dealt with the campaign didn`t ``follow normal business procedure,`` extending credit to campaign workers that they wouldn`t extend ``to the Chevrolet dealer down the street.`` That argument doesn`t sit well with Richard Seese, collection manager for Andrews-Bartlett & Associates Inc., a trade-show supplies company whose Alexandria, Va., office has a $371 outstanding campaign debt by Hart.

Seese said he received a letter from the campaign stating the bill would not be paid because it wasn`t an authorized campaign expenditure. The bill was for a 6-by-42-foot, two-tier platform Andrews-Bartlett supplied and installed at the National Press Building in Washington for a press conference on May 8, 1984, he said.

``We approached them and they said, `Forget it. We`re not going to pay it,` `` Seese said. A campaign worker`s ``attitude about the whole thing was extremely cavalier. He said, `I don`t care about this, it`s a small debt. I only care about big debts.`

``I have very little hope we`ll ever get paid for this, which is just plain wrong,`` Seese said.

For Capitol Hill T-shirt store owner Joe Silberlicht, the $3,058 the Hart campaign has failed to pay him so far meant the difference between profit and loss in 1984.

``I look at this as a very expensive lesson to learn,`` Silberlicht said. ``Now we have an iron-clad policy that any political work gets paid in full, 100 percent first.``